The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, was quoted last week as saying that social media are a thin and unacceptable substitute for real fleshly communities and friendship. The implication is that technology dehumanises us. But is this really true? No one would argue seriously that all technology makes us less truly human: fire, clothes, and houses all seem to enhance our humanity rather than diminish it. Even the discovery of distillation and of drug preparation are technological advances that advanced the boundaries of being human. But are computers different?

Do the lives of "knowledge workers", pecking all day like battery chickens in front of their screens, increase their humanity? Does the limitless availability of porn on the net make us more human? Were we better balanced within the limits of old technology? Are the friendships we make and the arguments we have online really thinner and less satisfying than in the days when bores ranged no further than their local pub?

Monday's response

Peter Thompson: The internet, as the Bible of its time, replete with myth and Chinese whispers, can liberate as well as enslave us

Tuesday's response

Maggi Dawn: Fears about technology are always with us, and almost always misplaced

Wednesday's response

Sue Blackmore: Computers are only part of the long history of technology and if we grow dependent on them, that will be nothing new. But it will change us

Thursday's response

Roz Kaveney: Social networking enables both passionate friendship and destructive bullying, much like organised religion

Friday's response

Alan Wilson: You can no more destroy your humanity by going on Facebook than you can catch swine flu from a bag of pork scratchings